As a first learning element in the learning paths concept, the existing onboarding process of Awake.AI was examined. Onboarding is the very first learning experience that a new employee faces when entering a company. The current process and practices were examined through an interview with company’s Head of HR to draw the current process and actions, and also through onboarding interviews with selected Awake.AI employees.
The employees’ interviews were conducted as semi-structured interviews, covering seven themes: recruitment and joining in; onboarding experience and process; engagement and belonging; organisational alignment; role perceptions; induction and on-the-job training;
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and support and challenges. This division of themes covers the whole onboarding experience starting already from the so-called pre-onboarding phase, from recruitment and the time before the new employee has her/his first day in the company. The division of themes covers also the goals set for onboarding through this development work, which will be discussed later in this chapter.
The results and findings were composed together on a slide deck, having a table from each theme on what to keep and what to improve in the current onboarding process and experience, added with some ‘food for thought’ ideas and further development
suggestions. The results were gone through with company’s Head of HR.
The findings of the first theme, recruitment and joining in, showed that the company has an interest-awaking presence in the labour market. The interviewees stated that the recruitment had been easy and pleasant, with superb communications on what is the next step coming. The employees had met their future colleagues in the interviews, the lead time between interviews and other next steps had been short, and there was a contact from the company before the new employee’s first day. However, the interviewees felt that there could have been more information and materials before the first day. As a ‘food for thought’ idea career stories or employee presentations was presented by the researcher for managing expectations of working at the company.
The second theme of overall onboarding experience and process had good first
impressions. The good spirits, friendly and supportive colleagues were mentioned in all onboarding interviews. All gear that was needed, was available, and the basic induction like the Employee Handbook, was relevant and sufficient. Most of the interviewees had had a named person in team to guide the new employee during her/his first days and weeks. The biggest challenge was to be able to manage the hurry of the people involved in the onboarding in a hectic start-up environment. A clearer onboarding plan (what, who, when) was also needed for managing expectations and to track progress, as well as smoothening the feeling of being overwhelmed during the first days with examining what are the role relevant materials and information. Although the Employee Handbook covers all essential things related to one’s employment, there was a need for knowing working habits of the organisation, for instance in a form of a Culture Handbook. As the interviews and this whole research were done during the remote COVID-19 era, the onboarding was lacking also a visit to the authentic environment, to port, as part of it.
In engagement and belonging, it was clearly seen that people are proud of their work at Awake.AI. They also feel integrated and welcomed in the whole organisation and in their
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assigned team. The impact of COVID-19 and remote work was seen as a growing need for socialisation activities to drive for more engagement.
In organisational alignment the big picture was clear for all interviewees, and they
understood their role in it. Furthermore, the company’s vision and direction for future was clear. Interviewees saw that their personal values matched with those of the organisation.
During onboarding their expectations on their jobs and their goals were also set. This clearance of role was also seen in the theme of role perceptions, as well as the resources and tools needed were available. The improvement area was in seeing clear learning and career opportunities.
In induction and on-the-job training theme good feedback was given on supportive colleagues (and people are brave enough to ask if they needed help), available and enough materials, and on new employee presentations at company infos. Interviewees also tended to have a clear vision on what still needs to be learnt at current position to be able to perform that job at present. In the improvement side the same topics of having a clear onboarding plan (time-scheduling; when onboarding is considered completed), finding role-relevant materials, working habits knowledge and learning opportunities further arose again. Own team presentation was also needed between the new employee and the assigned team to build rapport and to lower the threshold to go and ask for help.
The idea of putting the onboarding plan into an electric form, for instance to an e-tool called Trello, was introduced. The ownership of onboarding needed to be thought also, for optimal driving of it.
In support and challenges theme there had not been any particular challenges yet according to the interviewees. They had had supportive colleagues and discussions with supervisor every now and then – when they had time. The improvement ideas consisted of allocating time for help and reflection, creating a mentoring programme and reinforcing the feedback culture of Awake.AI.
After going through the results and findings of onboarding interviews with the company’s Head of HR, the goals for a successful onboarding at Awake.AI were determined. This was done in a brainstorming session that included the researcher and the company’s Head of HR. As a guiding idea was that people that come to work at Awake.AI, are highly skilled and motivated, and this wanted to continue throughout the whole onboarding. The view of human beings seen as individuals with different needs for support and enabling a high learning curve in a knowledge-based work and in a hectic start-up environment were also taken into consideration when forming the goals for the successful onboarding. As a
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result of the brainstorming session, six goals were formulated for a successful onboarding at Awake.AI:
− New employee integrates into Awake’s work community through socialisation and interaction
− New employee familiarises her-/himself with Awake’s practices, both general and team and/or role based
− New employee gains understanding of her/his work tasks and readiness to perform work tasks in accordance with her/his role
− New employee has her/his preliminary objectives clear and is aware of what is expected from her/him
− Sustain new employee’s high work motivation and engage her/him in the organisation
− Offer optimal support for new employee through individualisation, based on person’s own personality and background
The goals were also illustrated to an image (see image eight).
Image 8. Goals for Successful Onboarding at Awake.AI
Once the goals for a successful onboarding were set, the process description with
responsibility assignment matrix (RACI) and a new employee journey mapping were done for a desired and successful onboarding. These were done in a couple of
brainstorming/feedback sessions with the researcher and the company’s Head of HR, having a more iterative nature than one mini-kaizen workshop planned originally.
The process description divided the onboarding into three sub-phases: finishing the recruitment, pre-onboarding and onboarding. The process description and RACI also acts as a guideline to follow at Awake.AI to ensure the goals of onboarding are met with each
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new employee. The RACI makes it also easier to follow up in a start-up to who’s role belongs a certain task to be done when a new employee is entering the company. The RACIs include detailed information on what tasks need to be done; what, tools, who and how. Due to confidentiality reasons, the RACIs are not shown in this research report. The division of sub-phases can be seen in image nine.
Image 9. Sub-Phases in Onboarding at Awake.AI
The actual onboarding was divided into five different steps, covering the new employee’s first month at the job. The steps are determined to cover the first day, first week and its end, and first month and its end. Each step is described with main topic and tools/means for achieving that. The onboarding process description can be seen in image ten.
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Image 10. Onboarding Process Description at Awake.AI
To support the process description and RACI of onboarding at Awake.AI, a new employee journey mapping was done first with using an e-tool whiteboard Flinga, and the prototype from that was finalised in a slide deck presentation. The journey mapping presents the desired status of a successful onboarding through four stages: before first day, during first day, during first week and month. The idea of journey mapping is to capture all essential things a new employee does, thinks and feels. It also presents the highlights and
outcomes at each stage from new employee’s point of view. Recommendations for improvement or things that especially need to be taken into account from the company’s point of view, were also added to each stage. The new employee journey mapping can be seen in image eleven.
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Image 11. New Employee Journey Mapping at Awake.AI (Desired Status)
Notable is that due to the consultative nature of this research, all wanted improvement actions needed to be implemented by the company itself. To validate the results if the onboarding was improved through these actions, the following next new employee at Awake.AI was used as a pilot to test the prototype of improved onboarding. Researcher interviewed the new employee pilot with the same semi-structured onboarding interview framework as in the earlier interviews when establishing the baseline of current status. By doing so, it was easy to analyse and interpret the results if improvement was made.
In recruitment and joining in, more information was needed before the first day for the new employee, and this was improved by offering preparation material to be read which was role-relevant, sending in the onboarding plan, having beside all the office gear needed and a welcome kit from the company including some company accessories and clothing.
A regular contact was also made to the new employee by supervisor and Head of HR before first day.
By having a clear onboarding plan and role-relevant materials it was shown in onboarding experience and process, that managing the expectations was easier and the feeling of
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being overwhelmed during the first days was smoothened. A tutor was assigned to help and guide the new employee as a standard, as well as all relevant meetings and trainings, feedback discussions were scheduled to calendar in advance. The onboarding experience still had a high learning curve, but it was easier to track on progress on it, goals were clear and the new employee got hands-on assignments right from the start. The new approach took into account different needs of support for a new employee, and more involvement of the new employee, like having a task to connect with new colleagues at LinkedIn or presenting oneself in the company platform.
In the engagement and belonging, still more of socialisation activities was needed due to remote work (impact of COVID-19 situation). As the pilot was interviewed at the beginning of 2021, more socialisation activities were planned to spring 2021. The theme of
organisational alignment resulted in wanting more of repetition of company’s vision, but otherwise the results remained good as compared to the baseline. Role perceptions were still clear like before, as well as resources and tools needed were available. The impact of remote work was seen in this theme too, as more spontaneous discussions for sparring, brainstorming and feedback were needed since people do not meet each other in the office.
On the induction and on-the-job training, most important role-relevant topics were identified and then gone through with the new pilot employee. As a feedback the pilot stated that the materials and information were good and relevant and created a good basis, and it also included learning by doing. The pilot had a clear onboarding plan and all meetings were pre-booked in calendar, she/he had introduction to team and to the whole organisation and was able to complete the onboarding at own fast pace. Besides the role- relevant induction materials, some joint materials could be revised. An idea of having a basic training on tech issues like machine learning to understand better the architecture of the company’s service/product, aimed at those how do not come from a tech background.
In support and challenges theme certain improvement was seen due to establishing a regular named person/tutor to guide and help the new employee and due to pre-booking all necessary reflective discussions in participants’ calendar beforehand to make sure support is there when needed.
The overall improvements in onboarding can be summed up in three areas (image twelve). The most important improvement is that now the onboarding at Awake.AI has higher posture, regularity and compliance to the overall experience and process. More focus is laid on onboarding and it has raised its value and is prioritised. There are now
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more often checkpoints to ensure successful progress, and the review and assessment of completed onboarding is documented on a simple template to ensure compliance.
The reinforcement of feedback culture is raised also here. There are now regular and frequent discussions with supervisor and Head of HR, and the new employee. Virtual coffee breaks are open for all to stimulate spontaneous discussion and feedback, and an e-tool of Teamspective is now in use as one platform for feedback in the company. The frequent discussions and tools offer more socialisation also, and the planning of more socialisation activities is on-going at the moment for spring 2021. This is for getting new employees also to feel more connected with their teams and the whole organisation despite the remote work.
Image 12. Overall Improvements in Onboarding at Awake.AI
The concrete improvement actions that were made at Awake.AI, are divided by phase into pre-onboarding and onboarding related actions. In image thirteen the improvement
actions can be seen. In pre-onboarding phase a standard email was composed for new employee from Awake.AI to gather all needed administrational work information. Induction trainings were pre-scheduled for first week. More information and relevant materials were sent to the new employee before first day, and the new employee was presented to the team and the whole organisation.
In onboarding phase, a standard welcome email with small tasks like presenting oneself at the company’s platform was sent to the new employee. All company gears and welcome
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kit was delivered on first day, and the new employee had a signed tutor and pre-booked meetings for induction and discussion. The new employee had role-relevant training materials, and a clear onboarding plan, with a review and assessment phase when completed. The new employee’s personal traits were recognised to give optimal support needed.
The improvement actions mentioned were taken in regular use in the company during Q4/2020.
Image 13. Improvement Actions in Pre-Onboarding and Onboarding at Awake.AI Concrete future development suggestions were given to Awake.AI considering both the onboarding and the overall learning paths concept. The further improvement suggestions to onboarding consisted of the following tips:
− Use secured email for gathering personal information for GDPR security reasons
− Create a standard work email for HR to gather personal information from new employee at once
− Create a simple ‘ticketing’ system for HR to make credentials orders for a new employee to gain role-based accesses
− Go to the next level with the contact in pre-onboarding to make the new employee feel already welcomed and part of the team, for instance sending a welcome kit;
sending a personal hello from the supervisor and/or team (card, short video);
sending relevant company materials to be read; encouraging the new employee to connect at LinkedIn with other Awakians and to follow the company in social media; inviting the new employee to social occasions that might happen during the pre-onboarding days and weeks.
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− Draft expectations for a tutor for the whole organisation and make sure tutoring is taken into account in the tutor’s workload
− Make sure that welcoming, any meetings and discussions are pre-scheduled
− Update the onboarding plan and first week programme and send it to the new employee beforehand
− Involve more the new employee and have a small tasks list in her/his welcoming email, for instance presenting oneself in a suitable platform for colleagues, asking feedback from a colleague, asking another colleague to join lunch, getting access badge, attending office tour and trainings, familiarising oneself to Employee Handbook
Some of these concrete improvement ideas were already taken into use at Awake.AI during Q4/2020. Through the interviews some further development needs were also recognised. These were grouped in four different themes of work habits and company culture; better engagement and being part of Awake.AI’s community; more of vision and understanding the tech architecture; and learning paths creation. These further
development areas and suggested actions are shown in image fourteen.
Image 14. Further Development Areas and Suggested Actions in Onboarding
Work Habits
&
Company Culture
•Create a culture handbook
•Gather career stories/
employee presentations
•Reinforcing the feedback culture
Better Engagement &
Being Part of Awake Community
•Consider the impact of cultural background and
•Especially that of being remote (remote work implications)
•Onboarding plan further development, possibility to go digital e.g. with Trello
•Review of Awake materials at Drive, rearrangement according to relevant roles/departments
More of Vision &
Understanding the Tech Architecture
•Vision repetition more
•How do you live it everyday
• Don’tget stuck to ground work
• Future’sdirection and value proposition,
what’sin it for the customer in our product/service
•Is it realistic and achievable
•More of understanding the product/service tech architecture
Learning Paths Creation and Its
Scalability &
Connectivity to e.g. Career and
Rewards
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In work habits and company culture area, it was suggested to create a culture handbook that would dig more into the way of working at Awake.AI rather than the current Employee Handbook. The feedback culture of the company should be reinforced, and for talent attraction it would be useful to gather career stories or employee presentations. To gain even better engagement and sense of being part of Awake.AI’s community, it was raised that the impact of both cultural background and that of remote work should be taken more into consideration. The possibility of developing further the onboarding plan was stated too, for instance through technology like Trello. For better role-based onboarding, the company materials should be reviewed and rearranged. Repetition of the company’s vision was also needed more; how one lives it through everyday actions and is it realistic and achievable. To people not coming from a tech background is was suggested that basic training would be given on understanding the tech architecture of the company’s product/service. Clear future opportunities in learning and development was also needed, and this one is developed through the creation of the overall learning paths concept.